ScanGaugeE and Radio Display

[radarrab]

1) I know some people have gotten the ScangaugeII. I saw this one (which is less) and haven't tried to compare side by side:
ScanGaugeE
https://www.amazon.com (commissions earned)

I'm not a mechanic (so I don't need a lot of technical details) though I think I know more than the average woman. Can anyone give a quick comparison, or tell me why I'd want the more expensive one?

Mostly what I want is the trip computer that I don't have since I have a Sport manual. I miss the instant mpg feedback I had in my old Insight. (I also would like an outside thermometer, but I don't know if there is a gadget that would give me both.)

2) I get glare on the radio display, from the passenger side, and especially when I wear polarized sunglasses, I can't read the display. Is there something I could put over the display to fix this issue?

 

[Joker2]

On your first question, you get what you pay for (if you need the extra features). Not sure what you meant by the "average woman" statement because in my experience the "average man" does not know any more about a car then the "average woman" does. Anyway, that being said, without an outside probe (thermocouple in technical terms) none of these units can display outside temperature nor are they capable of. You would need a pretty fancy stand-alone ECU to do that. It may be cheaper to use a handheld digital thermometer about 100 bucks if that information is important to you.

On your second question, I can offer no solution as the issue you describe is just a matter of the physics at hand (LCD displays and how they reflect various light frequencies combined with what the polarized glasses filter out). You can spend a few weeks reading up on this but unless you change the display, there is no overlay that I know of that can alleviate our problem (I have the same issue with my polarized sunglasses).

BTW that scangauge is neat and someone here has pictures of it installed.

 

[dsgrey]

I've had a scangauge for a few years. It will read the air intake temp from the MAF sensor. On my old Focus, this was VERY acurate to the outside temp at highway speed. Anything slower picked up hot air from under the hood. For the M2, the air intake is always picking up heat and it's overstated by around 10 degrees. The M2 also doesn't have many decent mount points without the device being very obvious (theft). I tried the left lower dash but would hit it with my knee. I've settled on the carpet area between the console and shifter but it leaves much to be desired.

My favorite settings are instant mpg, air intake, timing and water temp.

 

[radarrab]

I noticed that I need to turn the A/C on much more in this car than my old one, in which I used mostly fresh air from the vent (which is usually too warm in the 2). That's another annoying thing.

I do have a portable GPS, which I don't leave sitting out either. But that I can just detach from the mount. How hard is it to remove the Scangauge?

 

[Racebrewer]

Have you looked at the Ultragauge?

John

 

[radarrab]

No, I didn't know about these things until I saw a few people post about the ScangaugeII. I'll check it out.

 

[ddawson]

Feature Comparison, I'll take the big one just for the X-Gauge Features.

http://www.scangauge.com/products/features/